Within Europe, Vienna was the first place I visited specifically to see the giant pandas! I booked the trip almost as soon as they’d announced that Yang Yang had given birth to twins – which was a risk, but I got lucky and those babies were adorable^ I also took my mum along on the trip, we really got a great deal and ended up paying £300 for the two of us for flights and 3 nights in a hotel, which was one of the benefits of travelling in February! So it was a little cold, and there was snow and ice on the ground, but we still had a great time – just need to go back in the nicer weather as I think it will be an equally beautiful city in the summer time. I didn’t take so many photos on the trip so there’s not a whole lot to share but here’s just a snapshot of 3 days in Vienna in February 2017.
Zoo Vienna Schönbrunn
Visiting Zoo Vienna Schönbrunn was the whole reason for our visit, and it didn’t disappoint! We had pretty bad weather, it was windy and rainy for most of our visit, but luckily with the pandas being inside as the cubs were still quite small, this wasn’t an issue for us. It also meant the zoo was pretty quiet, we saw maybe less than 20 other visitors, but it was also a weekday.
The cubs, Fu Feng and Fu Ban, were around 5 months old here, and were just learning to climb and explore around the enclosure – one was hidden in the giant tree stump at the back for most of our visit, while the other spent a lot of time working on climbing. Watching him/her get down from the big platform at the back was adorable^ There was plenty of options for climbing, with various trees and platforms, with different textures and heights to practice on. Of course there was also lots of bamboo for Yang Yang to enjoy – the cubs weren’t too interested in the bamboo yet! This was such a cute age to see cubs at, and as it was quiet, we had the pandas to ourselves most of the time. There was also a keeper talk while we were there, unfortunately I don’t speak German, so I don’t know what was being said, but I can guess it was a background to pandas at the zoo and explaining about the pandas that we were watching. The outdoor enclosure looked pretty fun for cubs too, but sadly I didn’t make it back to see them enjoying it before they returned to China.
Shortly before our visit the resident male panda, Long Hui, had passed away, so there was just mama Yang Yang and the cubs. After the cubs returned to China a new male was selected, and last year in 2019 Yuan Yuan joined Yang Yang in Vienna – they have not bred yet, but hopefully they can be successful in the future and I hope to visit again, perhaps in the Summer to enjoy some beautiful weather!
The polar bears were also a highlight of our visit. These two were pretty adorable and interacted well with each other – we don’t know what ages they were or if they were male or female, but they were pretty cute and also very active. The enclosure is also interesting, you are able to take a spiral walkway from below, viewing the polar bears from underwater while they’re in the pool, through glass at water-surface level (where the above photos were taken) and then from one floor up above the water level outside. While we were viewing from the top platform a keeper came along with some fish/food for the polar bears, so I think the polar bears knew it was feeding time and were hanging around this pool on purpose!
There were so many other animals to see at Zoo Vienna Schönbrunn, with the rain quite a few were sheltering from it, but I still managed to get some pictures of the red pandas, which were also super cute and weren’t bothered by the wet weather at all! There were also elephants, rhinos, big cats, giraffes, wolves and more – I was pretty excited to also see koalas too, they’re pretty high up on my ‘favourite animals’ list and I thought the enclosure was quite nicely done from those that I have seen in other zoos.
What else to see in Vienna
The Zoo Vienna Schönbrunn is located in the gardens at the Schönbrunn palace, which looks incredibly magnificent from the outside. The gardens also looked beautiful – we just weren’t there at the right time of year for it! We didn’t go into the palace either, the zoo really took up the from around 10-4PM, so there was no time to do anything else in the area on that day, I’d say you would need a whole day for the palace and gardens due to their large size. If I get to go back, this is on my list for next time!
Our hotel was in the Museums Quarter, so we walked past the main square here several times – I really loved the look of these buildings. We spent a morning in the Natural History Museum, which was pretty good and really packed with things to see. In this area there are also the art museum, modern art museum, contemporary art museum and architecture museum which is a lot to choose from and you’d really need a lot of time to get them all done if you really love museums! I was pretty happy with our choice of the natural history museum, it’s more my thing than modern art.
Wandering around the streets is one of my favourite things to do on holiday, you get to see so many things in one go, from great architecture to pretty parks. This way we managed to take in the Hofburg Imperial Palace, the Weiner Stadtpark where the famous statue of Johann Strauß is and also seeing the St Stephen’s Cathedral which has such an amazing roof!
